South Africa
The first pleasant experience was the really nice service given by the Virgin staff on my flight from Manchester to London Heathrow. The second pleasant experience was the Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow with marvellous facilities and great food and refreshments, setting you up for the 12 hour flight to Cape Town.
We arrived in Cape Town at around 10.30am and transferred to our first night’s accommodation in Franschhoek at the La Residence, set in beautiful grounds with magnificent views of the surrounding hills and mountains. A luxury hotel in every sense of the word, the food and wine were excellent. The rooms were spacious with all the amenities you would expect in a luxury hotel.
After a good night’s sleep it was an early departure for the journey back to Cape Town. On the way we visited the Babylonstoren, one of the oldest Cape Dutch Farms in the area with beautiful fruit, vegetable and herb gardens. We also had really nice lunch here. After lunch it was off to Cape Town via Steenberg winery (well worth a visit) before our two night stay at the Queen Victoria Hotel, Cape Town Waterfront. This is one of three sister hotels and is a 35 room luxury boutique hotel. Apart from the great location, you can use all facilities at the two other hotels - The Dock House and Victoria & Alfred. I definitely recommend any of these hotels.
Saturday was a day of mixed emotions - the morning was spent on a tour with James from The Uthando project and we saw some of the great work that James and his team do for some very deserving causes in and around the township’s on the outskirts of Cape Town. The afternoon was a whistle-stop tour of the Cape Peninsula and to Boulders Beach to see the South African penguins. It was well organised by our Cape Town based colleague Gail.
Sunday was an early start for our flight up to Mpumalanga, staying in the MalaMala private game reserve at Sabi Sands in the Kruger National Park. Arriving with just enough time to get in our rooms at the Sable Camp at Mala Mala (this is a collection of exclusive villa type rooms set away from the main camp). We set off on our first game drive and after seeing zebras and impalas we were lucky enough to see leopards before setting off back to camp for dinner in the camp’s BOMA. After a good meal and entertainment from the camp staff we were escorted back to our rooms by our rangers Roan and James, as MalaMala is an open camp. We discovered how open when we were greeted by a wild elephant munching on branches of a tree, only a few feet away from the patio door!
Monday morning and an early start! A cup of coffee and onto our second drive where we saw rhinos, hippos, giraffes and various other species. The beauty of staying on the private reserves is that the rangers can go off road when they spot an animal so you get really up close! After the three hour game drive back to camp for breakfast, an inspection of MalaMala, we take the short transfer to our lodge for this evening - the sumptuous Mala Mala Rattray’s lodge. Our room was beautiful and had its own plunge pool! One good feature of all rooms in MalaMala is that they have two bathrooms, one with shower and one with bath. On an evening game drive we saw more leopards and witnessed a stand-off between a male lion and a male leopard!
Another early start and game drive on Tuesday and we went in search of buffalo to complete the sighting of the “big 5”. We found a herd of approximately 150 and as we were on a private reserve we ended up driving into the middle of them; a truly awesome experience. After our goodbyes to our rangers we transferred to the Pretoriuskop Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park, where we spent the night under canvas. The camp is fenced so you feel much safer.
Our last day started with another game drive, and the last animals we saw were a she lion with some cubs! All in all a fantastic experience that I would recommend!